Power rate hearing delayed while talks continue

The hearing into a requested power rate hike has been delayed by a day pending a possible settlement.

UPDATED 8 P.M. THURSDAY

An exchange Thursday between the province’s Progressive Conservative leader and the chairman of the provincial regulator had sparks flying inside the room where Nova Scotia Power’s request for a rate hike was being heard.

Jamie Baillie and Peter Gurnham exchanged divergent views over the Nova Scotia Utility and Review Board’s decision to adjourn the hearing, pending the possibility of a settlement being reached.

Nova Scotia Power is asking the review board to approve two consecutive rate increases of three per cent. They would take effect on Jan. 1, 2013, and Jan. 1, 2014.

But at the start of Thursday’s hearing, lawyers for some of the province’s biggest industrial users asked the board to delay the start by one day so negotiations between stakeholders could take place.

As the lone dissenting voice to the adjournment, Baillie cited a lack of transparency and openness in a “broken process” as the reason his party would not participate in the talks.

“That is the old way of doing things. That is exactly the process that Nova Scotians have lost faith in,” Baillie said.

“They don’t want to find out after the fact about an agreement that’s been reached in the back rooms among a bunch of lawyers who say they represent the consumer. They want to see for themselves.”

The process “puts the regulator in the position of either rubber stamping it or hoping to catch all the details,” he said. “Both of those are bad outcomes for Nova Scotians.

“All of the costs of Nova Scotia Power, prudent or imprudent, need to be examined right here in an open hearing room.”

“There’s no loss of transparency. There’s no loss of accountability. Hundreds of questions have been asked to Nova Scotia Power through the course of the summer and those have been answered.”

Any negotiated settlement will undergo a “full and complete review” at subsequent board hearings, Gurnham said.

And a full review will happen “ because those who don’t participate in the settlement agreement are not going to be restrained as to any question they want to ask Nova Scotia Power when this hearing resumes if a settlement agreement occurs,” he said.

Liberal Leader Stephen McNeil said Baillie’s comments were “more about political theatre than it was about really trying to protect Nova Scotians.”

The settlement agreement “still comes back before this board,” McNeil said. “It gives Mr. Baillie, it gives myself and every other Nova Scotian an opportunity to come in and ask the questions just like I did last time, and I fully plan on doing it this time.”

It’s possible a negotiated settlement will be presented to the provincial regulator at 9 a.m. today.

“In terms of timing, we feel comfortable that the one day delay will still permit sufficient time to allow the process to conclude in the time that’s been set aside,” Nancy Rubin, lawyer for the Avon Group of companies, told the board when asking for the adjournment Thursday morning.

Other parties, including the consumer and small-business advocates, will participate in the talks that could lead to a possible deal on power rates.

“Nova Scotia Power and the parties would meet to discuss where we are to this stage, then (the utility) would depart and we would be able to confer in the absence of (the power company) to see if we could get some consensus among intervenors,” Rubin said.

John Merrick, Nova Scotia’s consumer advocate, said talks into a settlement agreement were initiated earlier this week.

“We’ve had some candid exchanges as to what the evidence supports or what options the evidence allows the board to choose,” he told reporters.

When it appeared there may be some substance to the talks, “we wanted to give an opportunity to all participants to take part in it” and to see if consensus could be reached, Merrick said.

He could not say if a proposal would be presented to the board today.

Nelson Blackburn, the provincial small-business advocate, told the board he welcomed the opportunity to include as many voices at the talks as possible.

“I think it’s important to have inclusion,” he said. “I think if we can have a bit of time, I think it may help the process.”